Archive for the ‘Oregon’ Category

Jennifer and Mat, over at the Crown Cattle Company, which is located near Seneca, between John Day and Burns, Oregon, are offering sage rat shooting for very reasonable rates. In this instance, reasonable means that you have the luxury of showing up from hundreds of miles away and knowing you’ll have a place to shoot squirrels. In my opinion, their rates are great, and I’d sign up in a heartbeat if I was coming in to shoot squirrels from out of the area.

If you want to shoot on their property, you need to call them at (541) 542-2608 and make a reservation before showing up. (What did I just say people? DON’T JUST SHOW UP, CALL FIRST, LIKE A PERSON WITH MANNERS!) They have a 2 page form to fill out that says if you break stuff or yourself, or shoot each other, or shoot cows, horses, chickens, or Big Foot, you will be asked to leave a check for the damages, and then, “Just Leave”!

The Cattle Company’s squirrel shooting rates are:

$35 per day per hunter Mon. – Thurs.

$45 per day per hunter Fri. – Sun.

$15 per day for hunters 12 and under.

Group rate: If there are 3 or more hunters in your party, take $5 off per hunter. (12 and under not included in group rate discount.)

SAGE RAT MOBILE: $30/day

Here are all the rules and regulation, except for the “No shooting Bigfoot type legalese from the back of the form”:

You must schedule hunting times with the owner prior to your visit.

Prior to hunting, you must sign a release form and agree to follow the hunting rules. Everyone in your party who will be on the property needs to read, sign, and place these forms in the orange box prior to hunting. Parents must sign for minor children.

You are only allowed to shoot sage rats and badgers.

Driving off roads is allowed only if ground is dry enough that you are not leaving ANY ruts. No driving is allowed on the hay meadows. You are welcome to walk in any of the designated hunting areas. No driving off roads after July 10th due to fire danger.

Do not leave any garbage, litter or ammo boxes behind. Please take it when you leave.

No shooting near horses or cattle.

No shooting around the shop, barn, houses, or corrals.

Close all gates that you open.

Drive and hunt only in the designated areas. (See map that will be provided)

Violation of these rules will get you tossed off the place, with a request never to return…

There are a couple more points I’d like to make. The above rules should be no-brainer, common sense, reality to people who shoot and/or hunt on other’s property. Please don’t make the rest of us look bad and close down another hunting area, like the Dinsdale Ranch, because you’re an ID TEN TANGO.
Here’s a map that shows where Seneca is:

Just a quick update on where the Crater Lake Buffalo Company is located. They are located on highway 97 north of Chiloquin about 18 miles. They are adjacent to the Klamath marsh and the Williamson river runs through the ranch. So drive times are about 45 minutes north of Klamath Falls, 2 hours south of Bend and 2 hours from Medford.

Crater Lake Buffalo Company, in Southern Oregon, is offering sage rat shooting this year. For any of you shooters that live in the Willamette Valley, they are a much easier drive than trying to get to Unity or Baker to shoot squirrels. And, if you mention that you saw them on ShootingSquirrels.com, they will give you an additional 15% off the price of your hunt.

Some of the guys in the forums have shot at Crater Lake Buffalo Company, and say the hunting is great. If you want to talk to any of them, the guys in the Tacoma Death Squad, including OblitaRat and RedMister have both been hunting there. And, according to Adrina, from Crater Lake Buffalo Company:

I had some guys shooting yesterday who went through about 3000 rounds each with a 75% kill rate.

Now that’s some fun shooting!

They only have a few spots left for the rest of the sage rat season, which ends around the middle of July, so if you want to go, you need to contact them quickly. Here’s what you need to know:

Guess what we might have access to? Remember 2 years ago, when the winning team at the Unity Squirrel Shoot came in with 996 dead squirrels in 5 hours of shooting (They quit picking them up at 1pm, when they thought they had a thousand dead squirrels, and then just kept on shooting squirrels for the next 3 hours.)? And then last year, when I was all up and excited about the 700-1000 squirrel that the Verminator, a newbie and I shot in an 8 hour day? Well, squirrel shooters, that hay ranch might be willing to let groups of hunters reserve days if they’re willing to pay for it.

Before you get all uppity about paying for shooting squirrels, remember how it sucks driving around all day and not being able to find a rancher that’ll let you shoot on his place, especially when the weekend already cost you $400 in gas, hotel, food and licenses? Remember how he took one look at your pretty pickup or shiny SUV, and just knew you were a Portland or Seattle hunter, and didn’t want you within 20 miles of his stock? Or, the 3 years that you waited to get a team into the Unity Squirrel Shoot for $450 bucks, and then only ended up getting 23 squirrels in 8 hours, and that was split between 6 shooters (real story)? So quit your bitchin about the money already….

Last year, on the Sunday after the Unity, Oregon Annual Squirrel Roundup, the Oakes Ranch had a 4-H fundraising shoot for anyone who wanted to come. They were doing it for local 4H kids to help with travel expenses, and it was great chance for teams from the Squirrel Roundup to show off their shooting and help the local community.

I called and asked if they were doing it again this year, but since there aren’t any 4H kids traveling overseas this year, there wasn’t any call for the fundraiser. So, you guys that were hoping to win some money doing long range shooting on Sunday, are going to have to find something else to do…

Jennifer, at the Crown Cattle Company, emailed me today to say thanks for putting them on the website. She says that almost all of their available days have been booked for the season, and they have only a couple of days left. If you want to grab one of the last few days available contact her at the number or email address below.

Next Sunday, April 26th, 2009, in Ironside, Oregon, the Oakes Ranch is having a 4-H fundraising shoot for anyone who wants to come. The shoot is from 10am to 4pm Mountain Time, or 9am to 3pm Unity, Oregon time, for those of you who will still be there after the Annual Squirrel Roundup on Saturday.

The Oakes Ranch is in Ironside, Oregon, and is a mile or two north of Highway 26, about 28 miles east of Unity. Their phone number is 541-446-3557, or 541-889-2302, for anyone who needs directions or has questions about the event.

This is the second time that the Oakes have done this in the last couple of years. Both times have been to benefit granddaughters who are in 4H and have been trying to raise the $4,000.00 it takes to pay for their Student Agricultural Exchange trips to Australia.

Lunch will be available, and, according to Mrs. Oakes, it’ll be pulled pork or BBQ Pork sandwiches, plus a bunch of other stuff. If you want to know for sure, give them a call. Here is a list of the events that are planned for Sunday, and it looks like a ton of fun. All the events have prizes, plus there is a grand prize of $100.00.

Rim Fire Egg Shoot: 5 shots at an egg suspended by a string at 50 and 100 yards off hand. This is a rim fire event made for you guys who have .17HMR’s, and still have ammo left after the squirrel shoot on Saturday. The price to enter the competition is $5, and you can enter twice if you need to. (Of course, that means you suck, but hey.)

Long Rang Rifle: 5 shots at a deck of playing cards at a distance of between 200 and 300 yards. (You can shoot from prone using a bipod or rucksack rest only.) The best poker hand wins…

Long Range Steel Target: 5 shots at steel targets in the 200 to 300 yard range. You can enter the long range shoots for $10, twice.

Sporting Clays: 36 clay birds and/or rabbits for a $15 entry fee.

Pistol Shoot: 5 shots at 10-25 yards. You can enter for $5 and do it twice if you have to…

There is a discount for multiple entries!

And Finally, there is going to be a .50 caliber shoot too, but you will need to call them on the particulars.

It was also mentioned, that there might be some squirrels to shoot, but you will need to call and ask about that too…

All of you guys who are going to the Unity Squirrel Roundup need to show up for this, have some fun, and spend some money for a good cause. If your willing to spend $75 per hunter to shoot squirrels where the prizes suck, you might as well spend some money to help out some kids.

I talked to Jennifer, at the Crown Cattle Company today, and she asked me to tell everyone that they only allow 1 group of shooters per day. That means if you don’t get your request in soon enough, then another group might book your vacation days before you do… And boy, wouldn’t that suck?

Jennifer and Mat, over at the Crown Cattle Company, which is located near Seneca, between John Day and Burns, Oregon, are offering sage rat shooting for very reasonable rates. In this instance, reasonable means that you have the luxury of showing up from hundreds of miles away and knowing you’ll have a place to shoot squirrels. In my opinion, their rates are great, and I’d sign up in a heartbeat if I was coming in to shoot squirrels from out of the area.

If you want to shoot on their property, you need to call them at (541) 542-2608 and make a reservation before showing up. (What did I just say people? DON’T JUST SHOW UP, CALL FIRST, LIKE A PERSON WITH MANNERS!) They have a 2 page form to fill out that says if you break stuff or yourself, or shoot each other, or shoot cows, horses, chickens, or Big Foot, you will be asked to leave a check for the damages, and then, “Just Leave”!

The Cattle Company’s squirrel shooting rates are $25 per day, per hunter, Monday through Thursday, and then they go up on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to $35 per hunter per day. They offer special pricing of $10 per day for hunters under 12 years old, but I don’t know anyone in their right mind who’d want to go squirrel hunting with someone under 12. (Oh, Dang, I wrote that out loud, didn’t I? Please don’t send me mail, I won’t read it anyway…) They also offer $5 off per hunter, for groups with more than 3 adult hunter in them. (No further discount for the kids, sorry.)

Here are all the rules and regulation, except for the “No shooting Bigfoot type legalese from the back of the form”:

You must schedule hunting times with the owner prior to your visit.

Prior to hunting, you must sign a release form and agree to follow the hunting rules. Everyone in your party who will be on the property needs to read, sign, and place these forms in the orange box prior to hunting. Parents must sign for minor children.

You are only allowed to shoot sage rats and badgers.

Driving off roads is allowed only if ground is dry enough that you are not leaving ANY ruts. No driving is allowed on the hay meadows. You are welcome to walk in any of the designated hunting areas. No driving off roads after July 10th due to fire danger.

Do not leave any garbage, litter or ammo boxes behind. Please take it when you leave.

No shooting near horses or cattle.

No shooting around the shop, barn, houses, or corrals.

Close all gates that you open.

Drive and hunt only in the designated areas. (See map that will be provided)

Violation of these rules will get you tossed off the place, with a request never to return…

There are a couple more points I’d like to make. The above rules should be no-brainer, common sense, reality to people who shoot and/or hunt on other’s property. Please don’t make the rest of us look bad and close down another hunting area, like the Dinsdale Ranch, because you’re an ID TEN TANGO.

The squirrels are just starting to venture out. I saw my first one a couple days ago (A big fat one!). I hear they are out pretty good in Hereford and Ironside/Cow Valley which is typical. I’m sure it won’t be long and they will be out here too!